Arkansas Blog

Occupy LR gets AFL-CIO help

Occupy Little Rock, the local offshoot of the worldwide protest movement that started in New York City with Occupy Wall Street, is getting a hand from a philosophical kindred spirit via a $1,000 donation last week from the local chapter of the AFL-CIO.

Though OLR's "General Assembly" — basically the group of protestors who are on hand during their planning meetings — still has to vote on how the donation will be allocated, some organizers we spoke to note that Occupy's camp at 4th and Ferry Streets near downtown has some winterization needs as the colder months set in, as well as ongoing concerns like food, propane for cooking, securing a larger tent to serve as a central meeting place, and acquiring wooden pallets to use as risers to keep tents from flooding in the rain.

Caleb Baumgardner, a law student who has been with Occupy Little Rock since the first organizational meetings, made some of the early connections between OLR and the local AFL-CIO. He said that though far-right conservatives have been spreading rumors that the Occupy movement is a front for organized labor since the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the support from the AFL-CIO, both nationally and at the local level, is simply an acknowledgement that Occupy and Labor share some of the same goals. Baumgardner said both seek to level the playing field between working people and the corporations.

"We understand that organized labor is supposed to be a countervailing force to the power of big business in this country so big business can't just run roughshod over everyone and do whatever they want with no accountability and no responsibility," he said. "They understand that we get that, so they understand we have a common cause."

Occupy Little Rock will hold their next large-scale protest march this Saturday, Nov. 5, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Occupy Little Rock camp at 4th and Ferry Street. For more information, visit the OLR Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/groups/occupylr